Writing a Custom Memory Allocator in C

Writing a Custom Memory Allocator in CWriting a custom memory allocator is no different than writing any other custom algorithm. Once you've decided on the parameters, the only remaining tasks are to select a memory allocator library and to make a call to the library function. Your program will likely be compiled without any of the memory allocation directives, so those are going to be the first things you'll need to supply. Then you can start the call to the library function.The memory allocator library will probably be part of a C++ library, and it will have a lot of command line options that will let you specify what kind of memory allocation you want to use. However, some of the parameters you provide will be passed directly to the library function. For example, the library may use a hash table or another memory allocator for integer overflow checks.An allocation must be designed to handle memory allocation and deallocation as well as data structure structures in the sense that i t must be able to handle multiple allocations from multiple threads. You can think of it as a 'reduce, allocate, copy, release' machine that must be able to deal with exceptions that the application throws.The final step is to implement the memory allocator. Once you have the library in place, your next job is to integrate the memory allocator and your program. Since you're just building a simple example program, this might be done by copying and pasting code.If you're interested in writing a custom memory allocator library, the option will probably be much more complicated. For example, you'll probably have to write some memory allocation directives to pass various parameters and perform various operations on these parameters. This could involve rewriting a large portion of your program.Since C functions aren't designed to be portable across platforms, you'll probably have to do some platform-specific porting in order to get the program compiled. One option is to compile the progra m with a C compiler and link it with a linker that supports C extensions. Although this will allow it to run on your machine, it will probably be quite difficult to transfer all the 'glue code' needed to get it to run on another platform. Other options would be to use a C compiler and find a C extension that you can use to translate the C functions into your own code.Writing a custom memory allocator library can be a very long and arduous process. It's definitely worth the effort if you want to use this particular type of system to help you keep your programs fast and bug free. Unfortunately, memory allocators are not part of the standard C programming language, so you're unlikely to be able to create them through your compiler.You might also be interested in looking at a good resource online that has some great tips and techniques for writing a custom memory allocator and converting them to your C language. These tips should help you get your program up and running as quickly as po ssible.